A TOWN has hit back at claims it has some of the filthiest air in Britain.

Bury was named in a league table of places with the most polluted skies.

But council chiefs say the survey presents an unfair picture - the results come from a monitoring station at Junction 17 of the M60.

Coun John Byrne, Bury's executive member for environment and transport, said: "The Junction 17 readings are untypical of the borough. Bury also has a monitoring station in the town centre.

"If the authors of the report had been looking for facts about the quality of air in our borough, rather then headline-catching highlights, it would have been fairer to quote the figures from that."

Pollution

The Chartered Society of Physiotherapists has published the league table to show areas of the country with the highest levels of pollution. It is calling on the TUC Congress in Brighton to urge the government to campaign harder for cleaner air.

It also wants unions to encourage workers to get out of their cars and walk or cycle to factories and offices instead of driving.

Bury came eighth in the society's national league table behind three London sites, Glasgow, Bradford, Port Talbot and Leeds. It was at the top of a north west league table, with figures showing 27 micrograms of a toxic pollutant called PM10 per cubic metre of air.

The society says people inhaling PM10, which is emitted by diesel engines, can suffer breathing difficulties.

But Coun Byrne said: "The monitoring station at Whitefield was deliberately set up in the most adverse conditions locally which are caused by heavy traffic on the motorway, where cyclists and pedestrians don't venture.

"In fact, the station is part of a Greater Manchester-wide strategy to tackle air pollution and the findings from it play an important part in helping to develop that."

A spokesman for the society said the results were from the official Air Quality Archive produced by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. It added the league table was "for illustration purposes".

Does Bury really have some of the UK's most polluted air? Have your say.